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VIDEO: 15,000 escaped crocodiles prompt South Africa evacuation

JOHANNESBURG — Calling all crocodile experts — South African police say you’re needed to help capture thousands of crocs out on the lam.

Up to 15,000 crocodiles escaped a breeding farm along a river on the South Africa-Botswana border when the farms’ gates were opened earlier this week to alleviate pressure caused by rising flood waters.

Efforts are now being made to wrangle the reptiles and get them back to the Rakwena Crocodile Farm, from where the vast majority escaped. Hangwani Mulaudzi, a spokesman for the police in Limpopo Province, said Friday that experts are needed right away to help sort out the crocodile crisis.

“Due to the number of crocodiles that have been washed away there is a need for expertise, people who have expertise to come and assist,” Mulaudzi said. “So we are just making appeals to anyone ... who has knowledge of catching crocodiles to come and assist.”

News reports from the scene show people hunting down smaller crocodiles at night, tying them up and taking them back to the Rakwena Crocodile Farm in northern South Africa. The crocodiles are easier to hunt at night because their eyes glow when hit with a beam of light. The farm’s website shows crocs up to 16 feet long, though crocs of all sizes escaped, Mulaudzi said.

Mulaudzi said he believes around 10,000 crocodiles remain on the loose. Officials from the Rakwena Crocodile Farm have been quoted in conflicting South African media accounts as saying either 7,000 escaped or 15,000.

Regardless of the exact number of farm-raised crocs now touring the wild, government officials and experts are calling on people who live near the remote region, which sits on the Limpopo River, to evacuate. Many of the crocodiles are assumed to now be residing in the river.

“So far we are lucky. There has not been any emergencies,” Mulaudz said. “But with crocodiles all over in the river we are saying, please, we need assistance.”

“People must not go into a monster hunt and think these crocodiles are out to eat them,” Styrdom told South Africa’s eNews Channel Africa.